A student wanted to investigate changing the mass of a cart that you can push. The student pushed both carts with a force of 200 Newtons. If one cart has a mass of 100kg and the other cart a mass of 50kg, what results would the student expect to see as far as how fast each cart moved in comparison with one another?

3 answers

According to Newton's second law of motion, the acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the net force applied to it and inversely proportional to its mass. The formula for acceleration is given by:

acceleration = force / mass

In this scenario, both carts experienced the same force of 200 Newtons. Therefore, the acceleration of each cart can be found by dividing this force by the mass of each cart.

For the first cart with a mass of 100kg:
acceleration = 200N / 100kg = 2 m/s²

For the second cart with a mass of 50kg:
acceleration = 200N / 50kg = 4 m/s²

Hence, the second cart with a mass of 50kg would move faster compared to the first cart with a mass of 100kg.
A scientist wanted to move a golf ball and a bowling ball to both reach 15 mph. What would the scientist have to do differently for the bowling ball than the golf ball to reach his goal?
To achieve the same final velocity of 15 mph for both the golf ball and the bowling ball, the scientist would have to do different things for each ball due to their different masses and properties.

The kinetic energy of an object is given by the equation:

KE = (1/2) * m * v²

where KE is the kinetic energy, m is the mass, and v is the velocity.

Since the scientist wants both balls to reach the same final velocity of 15 mph, the kinetic energy of both balls should be the same. However, since the bowling ball has a much larger mass than the golf ball, it would require more kinetic energy to achieve the same velocity.

To provide the necessary kinetic energy:

1. For the golf ball (which has a smaller mass), the scientist can use a golf club and swing it with enough force to transfer the required amount of kinetic energy to the ball. The golfer can carefully adjust the swing speed and technique to achieve the desired velocity of 15 mph.

2. For the bowling ball (which has a larger mass), the scientist would need to apply a larger force to provide the necessary kinetic energy. This could be achieved by rolling or throwing the bowling ball with a greater initial velocity or applying an external force such as pushing the bowling ball with more force.

Overall, since the bowling ball has a higher mass, it would require more force or a higher initial velocity to reach the same final velocity of 15 mph as the golf ball. Therefore, the scientist would need to apply a greater force or impart a higher initial velocity to the bowling ball compared to the golf ball.